Aviation360 MEA

A significant step has been taken in China’s decades-long effort to compete with Western rivals in the aviation industry with the completion of the country’s first domestically made passenger jet’s first commercial flight.

According to CCTV, China’s state-owned television, China Eastern Airlines Flight MU9191 from Shanghai “arrived smoothly” in Beijing just after 12:30pm (04:30 GMT) on Sunday, some 40 minutes ahead of time.

Beijing expects the commercial C919 aircraft to compete with global products like the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320. As relations with the West worsen, its first indigenous airliner with mass market potential would reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign technology. But a lot of its components are still imported.

State media lauded the plane as a sign of economic power and national pride, and President Xi Jinping praised the project as a success of Chinese innovation. The majority of customers will soon have the option to travel on substantial locally made planes, according to CCTV.

The C919 is the result of 15 years of development work by the state-backed Commercial Aviation Corp of China (COMAC).

‘New-generation aircraft’

The aircraft is due to land in Shanghai on Sunday before taking a longer route back to Chengdu in the southwest on Monday.

A student and aviation enthusiast named Lv Boyuan, 21, was at the airport in Shanghai on Sunday to board a flight for Chengdu, from where he intended to take the C919 back the next day.

“I’ve been really looking forward to its flight, especially because it’s a new-generation aircraft, unlike Boeing and Airbus equivalents, which have been around for a number of years now,” Lv said.

After several years of delays, the C919 finally took to the skies in 2017, and since then, it has conducted a number of test flights.

State-backed In March 2021, China Eastern Airlines placed a five-jet order. It received the first in December and has stated that it anticipates receiving the others this year.

Despite being constructed in China, the C919 largely utilizes Western parts, including avionics and engines from companies like Honeywell International Inc., Safran SA, and General Electric Co.

‘Important milestone’

According to CCTV, starting on Monday, the C919 will fly the standard China Eastern route between Shanghai and Chengdu.

The delivery of the first of the narrow-body aircraft to China Eastern was hailed by state media as “an important milestone” for China’s aviation sector.

Zhang Yujin, COMAC’s deputy general manager, told Shanghai’s state-backed digital newspaper The Paper in January that the company had taken about 1,200 orders for the C919.

In order to take advantage of the country’s sizable middle class’ rising demand for air travel, the European maker Airbus and its American rival Boeing are focusing particularly on Asia and China.

After agreeing to a deal to establish a second final assembly line for the A320 in Tianjin, Airbus said last month that it will increase its production capacity in China.

Four A320s are produced each month in the city’s first assembly facility, which started operations in 2008. Before the year is over, Airbus wants to raise that to six per month.

According to independent Chinese aviation expert Li Hanming, most C919 orders were simply letters of intent from domestic clients. The domestic market is sufficient for the C919, according to Li.

Since neither US nor European regulators have approved the use of the aircraft, the international market is in doubt, according to Greg Waldron, managing editor for Asia at trade magazine FlightGlobal.

The C919 would not have access to important international markets unless this occurs, he said.

The short-haul, 90-seat ARJ21, which replaced the C919 in service in 2016, is operated by TransNusa of Indonesia and other significant Chinese carriers.

According to Waldron, the ARJ21’s use in Indonesia suggests that the C919’s future outside will primarily be in underdeveloped nations.

COMAC and Russia are working together to build the CR929 wide-body aircraft.